iPad Pro How has Apple gotten away with a subpar Thunderbolt 4 port ?

[TheRealAlex]

I tried some data transfers since my Laptop has a legit Thunderbolt 4 port and the iPad Pro M2 isn’t even hitting half of the possible speeds.
what gives ?

 

[Abazigal]

I tried some data transfers since my Laptop has a legit Thunderbolt 4 port and the iPad Pro M2 isn’t even hitting half of the possible speeds.
what gives ?

Thunderbolt vs USB-C Speeds (inc. USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, USB 4 & M1/M2/M3 Macs)

If you're confused by the increasingly complicated world of USB-C, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4, here we explain the difference in

machow2.com

I can't seem to copy the relevant text from the article, but the gist is that PCs get only 1 lane of data flow, rather than 2 (it's not a problem confined to Apple devices).

 

[ponzicoinbro]

I tried some data transfers since my Laptop has a legit Thunderbolt 4 port and the iPad Pro M2 isn’t even hitting half of the possible speeds.
what gives ?

The file you transfer has to be large enough to saturate the bandwidth. The speed of the iPad's storage also matters.

 

[chrfr]

I tried some data transfers since my Laptop has a legit Thunderbolt 4 port and the iPad Pro M2 isn’t even hitting half of the possible speeds.
what gives ?

Not that it makes a lot of difference but Apple does not claim it's a Thunderbolt 4 port. The specs list it as a Thunderbolt 3/ USB 4 port.

 

[joevt]

I tried some data transfers since my Laptop has a legit Thunderbolt 4 port and the iPad Pro M2 isn’t even hitting half of the possible speeds.
what gives ?

How does the laptop see the iPad Pro? Does it appear as a disk? Is the disk connected via USB?

What speed do you expect, what speed are you getting, and what are you using to measure the speed?

I can't seem to copy the relevant text from the article, but the gist is that PCs get only 1 lane of data flow, rather than 2 (it's not a problem confined to Apple devices).

I'm pretty sure that's not what the article says. Besides, the original poster says his laptop has Thunderbolt 4, and laptops are not allowed to claim Thunderbolt 4 support if they don't have the max allowed performance. At least 22 Gbps should be possible. That's 2750 MB/s but that's only for PCIe transfer. USB transfer is limited to 10 Gbps = 1000 MB/s though Apple Silicon usually gives 100 MB/s less than that.

Not that it makes a lot of difference but Apple does not claim it's a Thunderbolt 4 port. The specs list it as a Thunderbolt 3/ USB 4 port.

If Apple claims only Thunderbolt 3 then we don't know how fast the PCIe connection is. Except it's probably integrated like M1 Macs so it should be max speed. The only reason Apple can't claim Thunderbolt 4 for the Thunderbolt of M1 and M2 Macs is because they don't support two 4K displays from Thunderbolt.

 

[KPOM]

If Apple claims only Thunderbolt 3 then we don't know how fast the PCIe connection is. Except it's probably integrated like M1 Macs so it should be max speed. The only reason Apple can't claim Thunderbolt 4 for the Thunderbolt of M1 and M2 Macs is because they don't support two 4K displays from Thunderbolt.

The iPad Air has an M1 but does not support Thunderbolt.

 

[Digitalguy]

Maximum data transfer speed of Thunderbolt 3 and 4 and USB 4 is exactly the same, around 22Gbs (the rest of the 40 Gb is not for data). TB3 and UBS4 can have lower speeds in some devices, but there is no indication that iPad is one of them. Just like UBS C speeds are quite a bit lower on iPads, so are Thunderbolt speeds, probably due to iPadOS..